As the saying goes, "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt!"

 

 

 

On our first stop on the new yearly adventure we hit Austin. Coincidentally they were hosting the 50th anniversary of the American Atheists organization and that sounded like an interesting start to the new year of travel.

 

Actually it was so much more than that it was incredible. There were over 30 excellent  speakers, authors, and panelists from Harvard and Oxford and much more that it was really rewarding. We attended as many of the presentations that we could and then the final dinner and birthday party of the organization celebrating Madalyn Murray O'Hare and her battle to keep our nation's church organization and government separate as it was designed and intended.

 

 

 

While here we decided to place the pin in the map and stay at a place right downtown near the event hotel located on Barton Springs. This was a 1950 trailer park that we normally would not have booked but it happened to be near the hotel of the venue.

Well. The park was as expected but really funky. I mean, we are right downtown and the place is ... eclectic ... I guess. Just behind us was a guy driving a Maserati car and there are more Airstreams than we have seen in a small park ... some dating from the 1950's and some brand new ... cool place and friendly management ... a real find.

If you walk out the front driveway of the trailer park and turn right this is the scene ... Uncle Billy's Brew house.  As a tribute to brother Billy who is an uncle we had to partake of whatever they had ... jeez.

And Uncle Billy didn't do us wrong. Here is their samplers of a variety of in-house craft beers ranging from a really nice pilsner to an awesome stout ... nice combination of hand crafted brews accompanied by the nacho beef platter in the center which served the both of us for dinner.

The final note was that we had a great time at the convention and in the city and met a couple of really neat couples that I hope will write us so that we can compare our mutual travel adventures and philosophies ... wonderful conference and new friends and we are already planning the next annual meeting in Salt Lake City in April of 2014.